Sabrina Delgado
P.2
11/6/14
Wise Decisions Are Life Changing Not having support from my family drastically crushed my childhood. Being the youngest sibling and having three older brothers led to the lack of aid I received from my family. I grew up facing an unfavorable juvenescence, however, I managed to confront my hardships and pursue my aspirations. Everything was always about my older brothers because they were involved and participated in baseball. Since my father was a baseball player himself, he wanted his three sons to grow up as a resemblance to him. I am the only daughter, and because of that, I was always put to the side with less attention since I was not able to impress or make my father proud by playing the sport he loves. At the age of 9, I started to notice less attention toward me and more to my brothers. I started feeling some jealousy and envy toward my brothers. I realize now that it wasn’t the appropriate way to react but as a young, naive little girl, I didn’t know right from wrong at a full comprehensive way. I felt that I was less loved by my dad since I was not a boy, and because of this I was tormented. My father is a man that is hard to please. However, my brothers triumphed his attention and satisfied what he wanted: his children to be baseball players. My observation as weeks went by made me come to a conclusion that my father was not pleased by my outstanding report cards nor academic achievements in school. It was all about my brothers’ baseball awards, banquets and games. He gave more recognition to them. My thoughts about this at the time were not quite appealing. I would go to my mother and cry to her because of the lack of attention from my father. She did everything she possibly could to make me feel adored. I absolutely knew my mother was trying to satisfy me but I felt as if she was on my father’s side. Coming to the end of my seventh grade school year— a hot summer afternoon—on my way home from school, my mother and I approached a red light. I examined my surroundings. While looking around, I contemplated a bill board on a local park. The billboard read Softball Sign-ups ages 12+. Suddenly, I had the thought in my head that can change my dad’s perspective. My thought consisted of me joining a softball team. I thought it was a fantastic idea because it was the closest I could get to playing baseball. Considering playing the sport for the first time gave me a nervous and anxious feeling. However, I knew something had to be done to grasp the attention from the man I have always seeked attention from. I instantly had visions in my head about how proud I could make my dad for playing softball. I liked the imaginations and I knew it was something I absolutely wanted to do. Later on that same day, I had a conversation with my mom about my plans to join the sport. She surprisingly supported me in everything I said; therefore I signed up. During the sing-up and commitment to the team I was extremely excited to make my father proud. I thought to myself that the impact of this decision was going to be a positive and remarkable first step into becoming one of my dad’s favorite. Everything started becoming a real-life dream. Finally, the missing puzzle pieces to my goal were coming together. But just as everything seemed to become perfect, my bubble bursted. I realized—how can I make my dad proud if I have no idea how to play the sport? I wanted to be the best there could be. To pursue my goal, I poured over instruction books and watched tutorials for hours to learn the right mechanics. From the sign-ups to the actual season’s time period, I was able to tune out my distractions and focus on my primary goal. I wanted to know what it felt like to receive attention from my dad, and this motivated me even more to strive for my ambition. The constant practice undoubtedly increased my potential and talent. I began to notice improvement and felt I was ready to start playing. I did not inform my
